The release of the 5 GHz bands for use by WLAN systems has offered a large number of new channels. However, there are requirements on users to not transmit data on these channels until they have checked that they are not being used by primary users, i.e. radar systems, by performing signal strengths measurements on the channels for at least 60 seconds.
Fortunately, it is not necessary for every WLAN terminal to perform such measurements. In the case of a mobile station connecting to an access point, it is possible to allow the access point to take care of checking for radar transmissions. In this case, a station that is to begin operation only need to find a channel, on which transmissions are ongoing to or from an access point, in order to be able to begin transmitting, i.e. to send a probe response to determine the nature of the WLAN, and attempt to associate if desired. To detect the presence of an access point on a channel, it is necessary to listen for transmissions on the channels.
An access point in a WLAN network typically transmits a so-called beacon frame approximately every 100 ms. However, to wait for 100 ms in each channel leads potentially to an unacceptable length of time to find an access point, with which one can associate. In ad-hoc or peer-to-peer networks, i.e. networks without an access point, responsibility for detecting radar systems is distributed to all stations in the network, and responsibility for generating beacons is shared.
As a compromise, it has been proposed to wait a shorter period of time and look for any traffic, i.e. beacon frames or other traffic, in a channel to determine whether it is occupied. This makes the situation reasonable in a busy enterprise network, where there is a reasonably high traffic level and a large number of access points available for use.
However, in the home environment there may only be one access point to which the station can associate. It is also entirely possible that the station is the only user for that access point. In this case, waiting less than the full beacon period may actually make the situation worse, since there is a fairly large chance of missing the beacon transmission from one's home access point on each measurement, thereby necessitating another full sweep through all available channels. Similar problems may occur in smaller enterprise networks or in enterprise networks, where there is a moderate traffic level and/or only a smaller number of access points available for use.